Bipolar diagnosis can be based be on physical exams and medical history. This is to done to rule other possible medical conditions that may have same symptoms. Reports have it that it can take up to 5 years to come up with the correct diagnosis of this condition. Then a psychiatric history and family history is done to also ensure that the symptoms are not actually caused by other mental medical conditions.
A family medical history is done because many disorders and diseases nowadays are genetic and therefore passing such diseases to people in the same family line is very easy. If a family medical record underpins a history of bipolar and other related depression disorders, then that might be the indicator of one having higher chances of having the disorder. Finally, an evaluation of the patient’s current symptoms is carried out. This is to look for any thing that may be the cause of such symptoms. If the results of the evaluation does not show any cause that may have triggered the symptoms and if there is no other psychiatric condition that indicates the symptoms, then a patient maniac or depressive symptoms can be diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
It is important to note that if there is no other previous mental disorder history, then such symptoms may directed to one suffering from bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorders are mainly characterized by having depression and mania symptoms and therefore if a patient only shows mania or depression symptoms, then the condition is most likely to be unipolar depression. Finally, it is important to note that depending on the duration and presence of symptoms patients may be required to take different criteria for the diagnosis.